Final filings of the maneuver in view of its arrival in Parliament. The last-minute adjustments made by the Government, before the so-called “stamping” of the State Accounting Office on the budget bill for the 2026 financial year and multi-year budget, increased the articles in the text to 154, compared to 137 in the last draft.
The bill is now expected in the Senate, where the process will increasingly come to life with discussions in the Chamber in November to reach final approval by the end of the year.
The process of the 2026 Budget
The march of the 2026 Budget began several weeks ago with meetings between the Government and the social partners and the transmission of the public finance planning document to the Chambers at the beginning of October.
The former Nadef is the preparatory act for the Budget Law, which implements the resolutions of the competent parliamentary commissions relating to the international framework and the updating of macroeconomic forecasts.
On 15 October, the MEF sent the budget planning document to the European Commission, which will be involved in the steps for approving the budget.
Approved by the Council of Ministers and presented on 17 October, the bill passed the stamps of the State Accounting Office which forwarded it to the Ministry of Economy, to then be sent to Palazzo Chigi and the Quirinale.
The next steps
The text of the 2026 Budget should arrive in Parliament in a few days, although the designation of the rapporteurs is still awaited. As per practice, the examination in Parliament begins in alternating shifts between the two Chambers and this year the Senate will begin the double reading.
The Bureau of the Budget Commission will therefore set the timetable for the hearings, which should start from the middle of next week.
The hearings at the Budget commissions should therefore begin at the end of October, before the presentation of the amendments and the first vote at Palazzo Madama.
The discussion will come to a head between November and December, with the opposition parties trying to negotiate changes to the measures to be included in the text.
As is now customary, the provision will arrive armored in the second reading, entrusting the last branch of Parliament, in this case Montecitorio, the task of confirming the already approved rules with little margin.
In these two months the process of approving the Budget could proceed without delay or, as often happens (most recently last year when the Budget Law was passed on 28 December), the timing could extend beyond the Christmas holidays and close to the deadline of 31 December.
Meanwhile, by the end of November the European Commission will send the member countries the first opinion on the relevant budget laws and economic forecasts. maneuver of the various states.
The deadline to avoid the provisional exercise is the last of the year, with the entry into force of the 2026 Budget Law expected for 1 January 2026.
